JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. =97 Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is waving her
fists across Indiana, signing autographs on boxing gloves.
=93We need a president who=92s a fighter again,=94 Mrs. Clinton said at a
rally on Thursday, adding that the next president must understand what
it is like to =93get knocked down and get back up: that=92s the story of
America, right?=94
In recent days, Mrs. Clinton has chided the experts for =93counting me
out=94 and Senator Barack Obama for his inability to =93close the deal=94
and declared that no one was going to make her quit. =93She makes Rocky
Balboa look like a pansy,=94 North Carolina=92s governor, Michael F.
Easley, said in endorsing her, and a union leader in Portage, Ind.,
praised her =93testicular fortitude.=94
This kind of language and pugilistic imagery, however, also evokes the
baggage that makes Mrs. Clinton such a provocative political figure.
For as much as a willingness to =93do what it takes=94 and =93die hard=94
ar=
e
marketable commodities in politics, they can also yield to less
flattering qualities, plenty of which have been ascribed to her over
the years. Just as supporters praise her =93toughness=94 and
=93tenacity,=94=
critics also describe her as =93divisive,=94 =93a dirty fighter=94 or
=93wil=
ling
to do anything to win.=94
The critics include supporters of Mr. Obama who subscribe to the
notion, pushed by their candidate, that Mrs. Clinton, his opponent in
the race for the Democratic nomination, represents the fractious
politics of the past.
The camp gained a new spokesman on Thursday when Joe Andrew, a
superdelegate who was a chairman of the Democratic National Committee
under President Bill Clinton, switched his support to Mr. Obama from
Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Andrew accused Mrs. Clinton and her allies of being
=93the best practitioners of the old politics,=94 who =93will use the
exact
words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending
President Clinton.=94
Asked in an interview on Thursday about the Andrew defection and the
dirty fighter implication, Mrs. Clinton simply shook her head and
said: =93I don=92t know where that comes from. I think it=92s just part of
the mythology that=92s been manufactured and promoted.=94
The mythology that Mrs. Clinton speaks of was shaped during her often-
embattled public career, much of it spent trying to find her footing
as an unconventional political wife.
=93She has learned how to be ruthless,=94 said Robert B. Reich, an Obama
supporter who served as Mr. Clinton=92s secretary of labor and knew Mrs.
Clinton in their college days. =93I doubt that it came to her naturally,
but she has learned.=94
There is, of course, a fine line between ruthlessness and the
necessary grit Mrs. Clinton=92s supporters say she possesses. Her feisty
talk seems to play well with people in her audiences, many of them
women who are quick to hail her fighting bona fides.
=93Would you want to take her on?=94 asked Barbara Anderson of
Jeffersonville. =93I=92ll tell you, she has survived her fight. Obama has
yet to have his.=94
While Mrs. Clinton is casting herself as a warrior for ordinary
Americans who need jobs, health care and cheaper gasoline, she is also
establishing a contrast with her opponent, suggesting he is an
untested lightweight. She mocks Mr. Obama=92s rhetoric as na=EFve and
challenges him to debate her on the back of a flat-bed truck.
When asked if the fighting motif could go too far, Mrs. Clinton
acknowledged that it could, but then quickly contrasted her aggressive
style with Mr. Obama=92s. His campaign =93has been about creating an
atmosphere,=94 she said. =93I=92ve never understood that. Because it=92s
not=
easy. I=92ve been in a lot of these fights.=94
Mrs. Clinton wears her battle scars proudly, and her surrogates
promote them. In introducing her at a campaign event in Jeffersonville
last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the crowd she had =93endured one
of the most savage beatings of anyone I=92ve ever seen in my lifetime=94
from her political adversaries on the right.
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